1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of protective shields for motor vehicles and in particular to sunvisors designed to provide protection from firearms.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of shield devices have been proposed to protect motor vehicle occupants from gunfire including from frontal, rear and flank attack. Armored limousines, for example, are well known in the art. Many such limousines include expensive heavy duty side armor and bullet proof glass to block entry into the passenger compartment of bullets or other projectiles fired at the occupants. Other attempted solutions have included, for example, the fixation of bulletproof glass panels adjacent to the factory installed standard glazing.
Lighter duty and less expensive solutions than the utilization of an armored limousine have also been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,477 to Kovatch discloses a sheet of transparent armor that may be removably slid into position behind a standard windshield along rollers captured by tracks mounted to window posts thereby protecting the driver and other occupants of the vehicle. The ""477 patent attempts to solve the problems of cleaning the opposed facing transparent surfaces presented by fixed add-on armor of the prior art by disclosing that the removable armor be pivoted about the rollers and away from the windshield.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,316 to Madden, Jr., it was proposed that a foldable bullet resistant curtain of material is removably secured to the underside of a trunk lid of an automobile and is deployed when the trunk is opened to resist bullets fired from behind the vehicle. The curtain, however, does not protect the occupants from frontal or side attack.
Others have proposed cumbersome and unwieldy protective shields that, when deployed, render the vehicle unsafe to drive. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,632,360 to Wilson is directed to an armored truck wherein, among other armored features proposed to enclose the cab from attack, is a shutter of armor plate hingedly mounted above the windshield and held in a raised horizontal position by a hook adapted to engage the edge of the shutter. The hook is disengaged from the edge of the shutter by operator actuation of a cable through a pulley allowing the shutter to fall to a vertical position behind the windshield. However, when the shutter is deployed into protective position, it also blocks the operator""s view rendering the armored truck unsafe to drive. The truck is equipped, however, with gunsight openings for self defense and signal rockets to draw attention and assistance from others.
What has been absent in the protective arts is a convenient, easily installable, readily deployable and undeployable, bullet protective shield for protecting vehicle occupants from gunfire while at the same time still allowing for the vehicle to be safely driven by the vehicle""s driver.
The subject invention is directed to a bullet protective shield for mounting to a sunvisor of a motor vehicle, the sunvisor having a frontside and a backside when deployed, said shield comprising an upper portion and a lower portion each portion being formed of a plate of bullet protective material. Optionally, at least one of the plates may be encased in a shell of material such as nylon. The upper shield portion having a generally rectangular configuration comprising a front surface, a back surface, top, bottom, and side edges. The lower portion having a similar generally rectangular configuration and including a front surface, a back surface, top, bottom, and side edges. The top edge of said lower portion is connected to the bottom edge of the upper portion via a hinge such that the back surface of the lower portion may be folded toward or away from the back surface of the upper portion. A fastening means is provided for maintaining the protective shield in the folded position. A window of bullet protective material is provided within at least one of said portions of the shield whereby the vehicle may be safely driven when the shield is deployed. Clip means are provided along the top edge of the upper portion of the shield for attaching the shield to the vehicle""s sunvisor. Alternatively, the bullet protective shield can be incorporated into a shield assembly including a rotatable and swingable pivot arm connected to a mountable bracket, which is installed in place of the vehicle""s standard sunvisor.